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By Alexander J Schorr
July 4, 2025 (Everglades, FL) — Nearby President Trump’s Miami resort in the swamplands of the Florida Everglades sits a makeshift detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” the latest in his administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps, writes in an editorial published on MSNBC, “I visited four continents to write a global history of concentration camps. This facility’s purpose fits the classic model: mass civilian detention without real trials targeting vulnerable groups for political gain based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation rather than for crimes committed. And its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.”
The term ‘concentration camp’ was in use for many years before the Germans used some as extermination camps, Pitzer notes. While most have been in foreign countries,notable exceptions were internment camps on U.S. soil set up to hold Japanese-Americans, including citizens, during World War II. President Ronald Reagan later apologized for their imprisonment and signed a measure granting reperation payments to those incarcerated.
The Alligator Alcatraz facility has received heavy pushback and a legal challenge, as well as garnering additional political stock and attention for the national profile of both Florida Governor DeSantis and his appointed Attorney General James Uthmeier.
“Clearly from a security perspective, if someone escapes, there's a lot of alligators you’re going to have to contend [with],” DeSantis said. “No one is going anywhere once you do that. It’s as safe and secure as you can be.”
DeSantis has long made immigration enforcement and deportation a focal point of his political rhetoric and messaging, so the effort to build an iconic facility surrounded by swamps, snakes, and alligators, is consistent with the administration's overarching policy goals.
Workers have transformed the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport from an 11,000 foot runway into a temporary tent city. The facility has a “detainee capacity of up to 3,000 people with room for additional capacity,” Executive Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie said at a roundtable with the president.
“Alligator Alcatraz” is expected to cost $450 million to operate for a single year, according to one DHS official who spoke with CNN, saying that Florida will front the costs of the facility and then “submit reimbursement requests” through FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.
The DHS official, however, told CNN that the facility is expected to house up to 5,000 beds, averages similarly shared by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt .
In a briefing on June 30th, Leavitt said, “The opening of a new illegal alien detention center located at Dade Collier Training in Transition Airport alongside secretary Christi Nome, Governor Ron DeSantis, Congressman Byron Donald’s, and other state and local leaders. We hope to see many of you there. The facility is in the heart of the Everglades and will be informally known as Alligator Alcatraz. There is only one road leading in and the only way out is a one-way flight. It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife in unforgiving terrain… This is an efficient and low -cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.”
Alligators in Florida Everglades, via National Park Service
The Trump administration initially said it would emphasize deporting immigrants illegally in the U.S. who are convicted of violent crimes, such as sexual assault and homicide. But the Cato Institute calculated that of the more than 200,000 people booked in ICE detention so far this fiscal year, 93% were not convicted of a violent crime. Nearly two thirds had no criminal conviction at all. Additionally, according to SAN / Straight Arrow News, ICE reports that migrants detained for violent convictions made up only 6%
As of last week, more than 58,000 immigrants were in ICE custody, according to internet data obtained by CNN, with many being held in local jails because ICE has funding to house an average of 41,000 people.
Right-wing influencer Laura Loomis has drawn outrage for comments she posted on social media overtly calling for the deaths of immigrants at the facility. She wrote, "Alligator lives matter. The good news is, alligators are guaranteed at least 65 million meals if we get started now." This has been verified as an authentic post by Loomis, according to the fact-checking site Snopes.
El Norte Recuerda posted on Bluesky, "The entire Latino population in the U.S. is 65 million. She means all of us."
The Guardian has described Loomis as a "MAGA influencer and de-factor national security advisor" to President Trump, making her statements all the more disturbing.
In an interview on NBC news, immigration attorney Sergio Seidmann stated that ICE is going into predominantly Latino neighborhoods and “basically arresting people, including US citizens, based on the color of their skin.” Seidman says these latest numbers provided by ICE are in stark contrast with President Trump’s promise of targeting violent criminals, deporting those that his administration has called the “worst first.” The approach however has instead become a directive to hit a quota of 3000 arrests per day.
While Republicans are touting this project as “low cost,” there is backlash from immigration rights activists and environmentalists as well as Florida’s Indigenous community, who see the project as a threat to their sacred lands.
According to Desantis’ office, the same tents used to house those displaced by natural disasters, like hurricanes, will only provide shelter from the elements, as temperatures soar into the 90s and powerful storms move across the Everglades.
Florida state officials said that they are developing evacuation plans for the facility in the event of severe weather, in what weather forecasters said may be a busy hurricane season. Arguments about capacity have done little to dwindle the backlash from local immigration rights advocates who have accused the Desantis administration of creating a facility “engineered to enact suffering.”
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